Cover

Title Page, Copyright

Contents

Preface

The essay, The Christian Life, is Pelagian in tone and is
definitely not Augustine's, but it is included here because it
comes from the same general period as the other essays and
treats of a similar subject. Moreover, it has special interest In
that it probably was written by a close follower...

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

Introduction

Interest in De vita christiana was reawakened by the publication of C. P. Caspari's work in 1890, where it was edited
as the first portion of the Corpus Pelagianum. After identifying the pseudo-Augustinian treatise with that attributed to
Fastidius, Caspari assigned the authorship...

Text

The long-suffering patience of a merciful God causes
many shameless and faithless unbelievers to sin with temerity,
thinking that God is not an avenger of sin because He does
not choose to punish sinners immediately. Wretched, ungrateful,
and unconcerned about their own...

LYING

Introduction

The dedication, 'Ad Consentium,' found in the Codex
Monacensis, the best of the manuscripts used by Zycha in
the preparation of his text for the Vienna Corpus, is evidently
an error, due perhaps to the fact that another tract, the
Contra mendacium, written by St. Augustine...

Text

The question concerning these persons whom we have described above is of no small importance. In the first place,
we have a person who knows or thinks that he is speaking falsely, yet speaks in this way without the intention of
deceiving. Such would be the case...

AGAINST LYING

Introduction

The religious controversy in the progress of which Contra
mendacium was one day to appear constitutes a chapter in
the ecclesiastical history of Spain. It may be taken back as
far as the decade 370-380, when a noble, wealthy, and cuItivated young Spaniard named...

Text

Lies, then, should either be avoided in right action or be
confessed in penitence. But, they should not, though they
abound unhappily in our living, be increased by our teaching. Let him who thinks they should, choose whatever lies he
wishes to help a man in danger toward...

CONTINENCE

Introduction

De continentia was written about 395, the year before
Augustine became Bishop of Hippo and at the height of his
refutation of the Manichaeans. This sermon, if sermon it was,
is strongly marked by its elements of anti-Manichaean controversy. Its subject, concerned as it is with...

Text

The virtue of the soul called continence is difficult
to discuss adequately enough, or as it deserves
to be discussed, but our deficiency under a burden
of such great weight as this He whose great gift the virtue
is will compensate. He who gives...

PATIENCE

Introduction

The Benedictine editors, however, refused to accept this
verdict. Though they admit certain peculiarities of style, such
as assonance and rhymed endings, they found nothing in the
translation at variance with St. Augustine's treatment elsewhere of similar topics. In support...

Text

Avarice, ambition, luxury, and a passionate interest in
various sports are considered blameless, unless they are the
source of some crime or outrage which is forbidden by the
laws of man. Why, indeed, the man who, without defrauding anyone, has suffered and worked...

THE EXCELLENCE OF WIDOWHOOD

Introduction

The lady Juliana to whom St. Augustine addresses this
treatise was the widow of Olybrius, the eldest of the three
sons of Sextus Anicius Petronius Probus and Anicia Faltonia
Proba. The great Christian family of the Anicii Probi was
renowned for its wealth and its prominence...

Text

You see from the foregoing that conjugal chastity and fidelity
to the bond of Christian marriage is a gift, and that
this gift is from God, so that if the concupiscence of the flesh
in wedlock exceeds to some extent the measure required for
the procreation of children, this is not an...

THE WORK OF MONKS

Introduction

In the treatise which Augustine wrote in reply he proves
that the Apostle Paul gave to the servants of God both the
precept and the example of bodily labor undertaken in order
to provide food and clothing. He then proceeds to show that
the Gospel precepts by which these monks...

Text

It was very fitting, 0 holy brother Aurelius, for
me to accede to your request with a devotedness the
greater in proportion as I realized the more clearly
who was ordering me through you. For, our Lord Jesus Christ
dwelling within you inspired the solicitude...

THE USEFULNESS OF FASTING

Introduction

This sermon of St. Augustine, De utilitate jejunii, was
not found in the codices extant at the time of the
Benedictine collection of his works. According to
their notation in the Migne edition, the sermon was found
only in the printed editions of the works. Exact...

Text

Therefore, my dearly beloved, since there is an earthly food
on which the weakness of the flesh feeds, there is also a
heavenly food by which the devotion of the mind is nourished.
The earthly food belongs to one kind of life; the heavenly
food, to another. On the former the...

THE EIGHT QUESTIONS OF DULCITIUS

Introduction

The date of The Eight Questions of Dulcitius is
established by Bardy as 422. In the Retractations
Augustine comments on this work as follows: 'The
book which I called The Eight Questions of Dulcitius should
not be mentioned among my books in this...

Text

Finally, just this: Where you ask why the Lord, undoubtedly
having foreknowledge of the future, said: 'I chose
David according to my heart,' when David committed such
serious sins, I could not discover where I have discussed that
question, or how I have explained...

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